Granted, Iron Man is more fun. Thor is just a dull character. Any interesting things happen around him. Captain America could be interesting. Man out of his element or bring back his original cohorts: the mechanical Human Torch and Namor.

If we were only talking about the Avengers, sure, I might be willing to concede the point. But TFA's first paragraph says, "Iron Man is currently the only Marvel movie superhero who is really worth watching on screen"

Depending on how they are treated, and if they can actually get a decent movie behind them, Logan, Deadpool, Spiderman, hell, a whole bevy of Marvel characters might beg to disagree.

The thing that irked me with Captain America is the fact that they broke so many rules of the series. The scene where he's running down the industrial hallway shooting lasers and killing Nazis was absolutely unwatchable.

Iron Man is a prick by nature, and Robert Downey Jr fills the role perfectly.

Snarcoleptic_Hoosier:The thing that irked me with Captain America is the fact that they broke so many rules of the series. The scene where he's running down the industrial hallway shooting lasers and killing Nazis was absolutely unwatchable.

Iron Man is a prick by nature, and Robert Downey Jr fills the role perfectly.

As somebody who is at best a casual fan of superhero comics, what was wrong with that?

Is Captain America supposed to have that same "never, ever kill, ever" lameness that Superman has and many versions of Batman have? That's one big reason I honestly find Superman boring as toast.

In that movie scene, Captain Steve Rogers was supposed to be a commissioned Officer in the US Army, in time of war, behind enemy lines, engaging the enemy. If he wasn't shooting to kill, he'd be doing it wrong.

Was it lasers? With all the wacky superscience of comic books and Nazi energy weapons drawing power from a cosmic cube in World War II was the breaking point to you?

BigLuca:Uisce Beatha:Depending on how they are treated, and if they can actually get a decent movie behind them, Logan, Deadpool, Spiderman, hell, a whole bevy of Marvel characters might beg to disagree.

I was so excited to possibly see Ryan Reynolds in a stand alone Deadpool movie. Then his Deadpool character became a test pilot, got a magic ring and a sucky movie, now I don't care so much.

simplicimus:Granted, Iron Man is more fun. Thor is just a dull character. Any interesting things happen around him. Captain America could be interesting. Man out of his element or bring back his original cohorts: the mechanical Human Torch and Namor.

Thor, dull? This is a guy who will ride into Hell and fight the Goddess of Death. Whilst speechifying an an amazing faux-Shakesperian manner, and blowing up hordes of bad guys with lightning bolts from a hammer. If that's not your thing, cool, but not every hero has to have a dark side to be fun.

Any patriotic hero like Captain America just isn't exciting anymore, because innate in his character is the implication that non-American lives are less valuable than American ones. It's this weird American exceptionalism that is increasingly less and less relevant.

Bashar and Asma's Infinite Playlist:Any patriotic hero like Captain America just isn't exciting anymore, because innate in his character is the implication that non-American lives are less valuable than American ones. It's this weird American exceptionalism that is increasingly less and less relevant.

And Thor has a funny Danish accent.

There's nothing wrong with think your people are better. As a matter of fact, every culture across the globe does the same exact thing. The only difference is, they don't have douchebags apologizing for it.

Silverstaff:Snarcoleptic_Hoosier: The thing that irked me with Captain America is the fact that they broke so many rules of the series. The scene where he's running down the industrial hallway shooting lasers and killing Nazis was absolutely unwatchable.

Iron Man is a prick by nature, and Robert Downey Jr fills the role perfectly.

As somebody who is at best a casual fan of superhero comics, what was wrong with that?

Is Captain America supposed to have that same "never, ever kill, ever" lameness that Superman has and many versions of Batman have? That's one big reason I honestly find Superman boring as toast.

In that movie scene, Captain Steve Rogers was supposed to be a commissioned Officer in the US Army, in time of war, behind enemy lines, engaging the enemy. If he wasn't shooting to kill, he'd be doing it wrong.

Was it lasers? With all the wacky superscience of comic books and Nazi energy weapons drawing power from a cosmic cube in World War II was the breaking point to you?

Cap has killed, and will kill again. He's a SOLDIER. He killed from the very first time he appeared. Does he try to avoid it in non-war situations? Yes. He prefers to capture and imprison, partly because he's a hero and partly because he knows first-hand that sometimes rehabilitated villains make excellent allies.

But Captain American never shied away from killing when in the middle of a war, and Ultimate Captain America is actually pretty fond of killing enemies he thinks aren't worth saving.

Captain America is NOT Batman.

/Though when they fought each other, Batman admitted he couldn't beat Cap in a straight fight.//Super-soldier versus peak human. Eventually, Batman would lose.///Cap's a better tactician, as skilled a fighter, and heals pretty quickly.////Oh yeah, and CAP KILLS IF HE HAS TO.

Out of three first movies for the characters listed (Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America), I think Iron Man was the best. This is thanks to RD,Jr., good writing, and the lack of a romance subplot being shoehorned into the middle of everything needlessly. Yes, it was there, but it was minor and did not distract much.

Captain America was awesome in the way that they subverted the whole concept, having him stuck selling war bonds for half the movie. The execution of the movie concept did not worship the hero needlessly.

Thor was, I must say, vastly better than I thought it would be. Chris Hemsworth was just lunky and egotistical enough, Tom Hiddleston was by far the best villain I've seen in a long time, Stringer Bell did a great job guarding the bridge, and everyone else was fantastic...except for Natalie Portman. Please, Natalie, hurry up and die, and quit ruining movies with your 'acting'. Your two facial expressions ("stupid and amused" and "constipated") are both painful to watch. Her aside, the comic timing in some of the scenes was perfect, e.g. when they back over Thor just after the research assistant cocks her TASER. Also, it was directed by Kenneth Branagh, for crying out loud.

Okay, I'll grant that a couple images are Bucky-Cap, and one might be 1950s Captain America, who is actually a bit of a crazy right-wing asshole and not the real Steve Rogers, but the others are Ultimate Cap and 616 Cap, and he doesn't have a problem with guns or mortally wounding an enemy if the situation calls for it.

Silverstaff:Snarcoleptic_Hoosier: The thing that irked me with Captain America is the fact that they broke so many rules of the series. The scene where he's running down the industrial hallway shooting lasers and killing Nazis was absolutely unwatchable.

Iron Man is a prick by nature, and Robert Downey Jr fills the role perfectly.

As somebody who is at best a casual fan of superhero comics, what was wrong with that?

Is Captain America supposed to have that same "never, ever kill, ever" lameness that Superman has and many versions of Batman have? That's one big reason I honestly find Superman boring as toast.

In that movie scene, Captain Steve Rogers was supposed to be a commissioned Officer in the US Army, in time of war, behind enemy lines, engaging the enemy. If he wasn't shooting to kill, he'd be doing it wrong.

Was it lasers? With all the wacky superscience of comic books and Nazi energy weapons drawing power from a cosmic cube in World War II was the breaking point to you?

It's not the never kill thing. He kills if he has to or if he feels that something is too dangerous to live, but he doesn't go out of his way to do it.

The breaking point for me was the lasers and Nazis tropes. I get that Nazis were the time period, and lasers make cool weapons, but the absurdity of Captain America running down a hallway with a laser rifle and then having the camera cut to a close up to show he's being heroic. Marvel heroes are people who by circumstance were required to be heroes. DC heroes walk tall and basically scream "LOOK AT HOW F***ING GLORIOUS I AM"

I enjoyed the first part of the movie (young kid gets mutated, has emotional problems, and tries to figure out what the hell happened) much more than the second part. Your mileage may vary.

Bashar and Asma's Infinite Playlist:Any patriotic hero like Captain America just isn't exciting anymore, because innate in his character is the implication that non-American lives are less valuable than American ones. It's this weird American exceptionalism that is increasingly less and less relevant.

I disagree, even as a non-American. His film flagrantly discarded the "rah-rah" jingoism that he was born in and portrayed it for the propaganda piece it always was, and it's now an inherent part of his character. Cap actually took a stand against that stuff; that's the turning point in his film, when he starts making his own choices to be a hero.

The character was "born" in the WWII propaganda era, essentially. He was the embodiment of the American ideal. And that's exactly how they chose to use him today, and if they don't want to cheapen it, it's going to remain his focus; he isthe American ideal, of a different America than the one he lives in today. He's a man out of time, but he harks back to all the better things of that earlier era.

He's a great character because of this, and it's why he ends up as the leader of the Avengers. Not because he's stronger than the others. Not because he's smarter. Because he's a better man, and they know it. That's why he asked the "take away the suit and who are you?" in the Avengers. He wasn't asking about power. He was asking about character. That he'd ask is perfect for him, and Stark's response is perfect. Not because it's 'right', but because it lays out the difference between the two; Cap is all about heart, Stark is all about being rich and famous. Which is also why Stark, in the comics, had his bout with alcoholism; he's a flawed man, at heart. Thor has superiority issues and underestimates mortals, and can be overly violent. Hulk is just a raging smash machine. They're all flawed. Cap really isn't.

And now he's stuck in a world where flaws are vaunted as virtues. That's the point of his exchange with Stark. And it's why he's still an interesting character.

Thorak:He's a great character because of this, and it's why he ends up as the leader of the Avengers. Not because he's stronger than the others. Not because he's smarter. Because he's a better man, and they know it. That's why he asked the "take away the suit and who are you?" in the Avengers. He wasn't asking about power. He was asking about character. That he'd ask is perfect for him, and Stark's response is perfect. Not because it's 'right', but because it lays out the difference between the two; Cap is all about heart, Stark is all about being rich and famous. Which is also why Stark, in the comics, had his bout with alcoholism; he's a flawed man, at heart. Thor has superiority issues and underestimates mortals, and can be overly violent. Hulk is just a raging smash machine. They're all flawed. Cap really isn't.

And now he's stuck in a world where flaws are vaunted as virtues. That's the point of his exchange with Stark. And it's why he's still an interesting character.

Flawless characters are about as uninteresting as you can get.

The ultimates version beats the pants off of mainstream captain america. Especially since they get rid of that "peak human yet I beat up guys that can bench tanks" nonsense.

Haven't seen Iron Man 3 yet, but two was pretty boring. Even Mikey Rourke and Sam Rockwell couldn't renew my interest, however much I wanted I to. I liked the first one alright. I thought Thor was good, not quite as climactic as I hoped, but not underwhelming. I didn't really care for Captain America with the Nazi muscle car and cartoonish elements blended with a Savin Pvt Ryan backdrop, but I didn't think it was terrible. He's just never interested me that much, but I did find Hugo Weaving amusing. But they were all fine origin/intro stories. I don't think anyone can really make any calls on which franchise is the best yet though because, Dark World and Winter Soldier have yet to come out. I think both have the potential to be awesome. I just hope Beta Ray Bill doesn't make an appearance, he would not translate well, no matter how much much of a fan favorite he seems to be, it would be ridiculous. I say thee nay.

I love my fiancee with all my heart, and I would never step out on her... But I have to admit that I would not turn down the opportunity to stare at Ms. Atwell's naked breasts in close proximity. For like 27 seconds.

/I wouldn't touch.//I prefer my girl's body, but we can still appreciate a nice rack when we see it.

mark12A:Iron Man is the ONLY superhero I was ever interested in because he's plausible. It's possible to build some kind of super-duper armor suit. Not with today's tech, but maybe in the future.

I simply don't take "super powers" seriously. So forget the X-Men, Spider Man, Fantastic Four, etc. Just not believable.

/also, how does Aquaman poop?

Actually, with genetic engineering, we may see people with "super powers" some day. Maybe not eye-beams or controlling weather, but enhanced speed, endurance, strength, and senses most definitely. Splicing animal traits into humans may some day be possible, too. We'd be closer to it now if there weren't international laws against hybridizing humans and animals.

Just got back from IM3 and it was AWESOME, better than 2, on a par with the first. Quite a roller-coaster, plot, script, and character-wise, with so much crammed into 130 minutes the editors were geniuses.

Kingslet was terrific in it, Guy Pierce was full of Guy Pierceness, Downey ran the gamut of emotions. Plenty of surprises and little Easter-eggs here and there. Stan has his cameo.

Though the third movie draws from the comic book series' cannon, what they did is re-mix and re-order some things that really worked well for a movie. The comic fans will have years of arguments over the re-worked plots and canon, but speaking as an original fan since my sixties childhood, I enjoyed the heck out of it and would love to see a fourth one, if it was as good as this.

LDM90:Just got back from Iron Man 3 and it wasn't bad, but they should have called it Tony Stark 3.

Also, Tony Stark wasn't a cocky SOB before Downey. He is NOW - because of Downey.

Yeah, it is interesting that both TDKR and IM3 took both heroes out of their super suits for most of the movie. movie. I did kind of like it, however, because RDJ is just so damn entertaining to watch. I even liked the Mandarin twist, although I wish they hadn't felt the need to spoil the "House Party" in the trailers.

Tony Stark is the uber-Engineer. He is worshiped by us engineers because that's exactly what most of us engineers think of ourselves. With money and no interference from the government weasels, we could permanently fix ALL of the world's problems, no sweat. Fark diplomacy, fark navel gazing about feelings and rights and cultural legitimacy and all that other crap. Build nukes for power, build dams for agriculture, build kick ass weapon systems and use them to exterminate bad guys once and for all, etc. If we could just get these goddamm Harvard/Yale/etc. policy wonks and their theories out of the farking way, we could get things DONE and SETTLED.

Step one: nuke the farkin' middle east into a glassified parking lot and put them out of our misery. Just do it. Those barbarians are a lost cause. NOTHING will be lost by removing them from existence. Nothing.

And then proceed from there. All of this planet's material issues are easily solvable once you get the goddam politicians out of the way. Energy is not a proble. Food is not a problem. Politicians trying to steer the bus are the problem.

BigLuca:Uisce Beatha:Depending on how they are treated, and if they can actually get a decent movie behind them, Logan, Deadpool, Spiderman, hell, a whole bevy of Marvel characters might beg to disagree.

I was so excited to possibly see Ryan Reynolds in a stand alone Deadpool movie. Then his Deadpool character became a test pilot, got a magic ring and a sucky movie, now I don't care so much.

So I've tried really hard to get into the Iron Man movies, but I just can't do it. And it has nothing to do with the script or directing. It's all RDJ's horrendous acting. I've noticed him repeating the same faces and tones over and over....when he bothers to act at all. And why does Tony Stark look like farking Al Pacino? It's just awful. All his roles are either men looking like they're horny or men who have a drinking problem. Has anyone else had this problem with the new Iron Man. Just me?

mark12A:Tony Stark is the uber-Engineer. He is worshiped by us engineers because that's exactly what most of us engineers think of ourselves. With money and no interference from the government weasels, we could permanently fix ALL of the world's problems, no sweat. Fark diplomacy, fark navel gazing about feelings and rights and cultural legitimacy and all that other crap. Build nukes for power, build dams for agriculture, build kick ass weapon systems and use them to exterminate bad guys once and for all, etc. If we could just get these goddamm Harvard/Yale/etc. policy wonks and their theories out of the farking way, we could get things DONE and SETTLED.

Step one: nuke the farkin' middle east into a glassified parking lot and put them out of our misery. Just do it. Those barbarians are a lost cause. NOTHING will be lost by removing them from existence. Nothing.

And then proceed from there. All of this planet's material issues are easily solvable once you get the goddam politicians out of the way. Energy is not a proble. Food is not a problem. Politicians trying to steer the bus are the problem.

mark12A:Tony Stark is the uber-Engineer. He is worshiped by us engineers because that's exactly what most of us engineers think of ourselves. With money and no interference from the government weasels, we could permanently fix ALL of the world's problems, no sweat. Fark diplomacy, fark navel gazing about feelings and rights and cultural legitimacy and all that other crap. Build nukes for power, build dams for agriculture, build kick ass weapon systems and use them to exterminate bad guys once and for all, etc. If we could just get these goddamm Harvard/Yale/etc. policy wonks and their theories out of the farking way, we could get things DONE and SETTLED.

Step one: nuke the farkin' middle east into a glassified parking lot and put them out of our misery. Just do it. Those barbarians are a lost cause. NOTHING will be lost by removing them from existence. Nothing.

And then proceed from there. All of this planet's material issues are easily solvable once you get the goddam politicians out of the way. Energy is not a proble. Food is not a problem. Politicians trying to steer the bus are the problem.

/whew//that felt good

This is why engineers have never been in charge. They are technically adept children.

mark12A:Tony Stark is the uber-Engineer. He is worshiped by us engineers because that's exactly what most of us engineers think of ourselves. With money and no interference from the government weasels, we could permanently fix ALL of the world's problems, no sweat. Fark diplomacy, fark navel gazing about feelings and rights and cultural legitimacy and all that other crap. Build nukes for power, build dams for agriculture, build kick ass weapon systems and use them to exterminate bad guys once and for all, etc. If we could just get these goddamm Harvard/Yale/etc. policy wonks and their theories out of the farking way, we could get things DONE and SETTLED.

Step one: nuke the farkin' middle east into a glassified parking lot and put them out of our misery. Just do it. Those barbarians are a lost cause. NOTHING will be lost by removing them from existence. Nothing.

And then proceed from there. All of this planet's material issues are easily solvable once you get the goddam politicians out of the way. Energy is not a proble. Food is not a problem. Politicians trying to steer the bus are the problem.

Thor: Overbearing nigh-invulnerable Norse God with a tiny hammer and a universe sized ego.Cap: Earnest Patriotic Soldier, looking to do the right thing at all times.Iron Man: Rich, eccentric, genius arsehole who loves to womanize, drink and just be a smarmy sarcastic arse.

In most era's, Iron Man would be the one people love the most, even if they technically said they preferred Cap or even Thor.